Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule has alleged that her husband Sadanand Sule was issued an income tax bill after her speech in the Lok Sabha during the budget session of Parliament that ended last week.
“We received a notice from the Income Tax Department shortly after the Budget session,” she revealed, adding: “I don’t know if it is a coincidence, but every time I speak in Parliament, Sadanand Sule (her husband) gets a notice from the Income Tax Department,” Sule, the Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Baramati, said at a press conference on August 12.
She said it has now become routine that whenever she speaks out in Parliament against this (BJP) government, her husband gets a notice from the Income Tax Department.
In a speech on the Waqf Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha on August 8, Sule requested the government to either withdraw the Bill altogether or send it to a standing committee. The Bill was eventually sent to a joint parliamentary committee for scrutiny.
She said she has asked her husband to collect information about these notices. She said the family had received similar notices six to seven times in the past about an old case that her husband had already dealt with.
Sule also confirmed that the WhatsApp accounts of three people, including herself, were 'hacked' last week. The victims included a non-political person and the party's general secretary Aditi Nalawade, she said.
“With agencies like the Income Tax Department, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its disposal, the government does not need an application to hack the phones of political opponents. There could be some form of surveillance,” she said.
Supriya Sule emerged victorious in the Lok Sabha elections from Baramati seat, defeating Sunetra Pawar of the National Congress Party.
Sule urged people to be cautious and take extra security measures for their phones and WhatsApp accounts. “The incident needs to be taken seriously by the government, the service providers and also by us. We all need a firewall because privacy is our choice,” she said.
Sule also criticised the state's finance minister Ajit Pawar for his absence from GST council meetings. “If the state finance minister does not attend these meetings and discuss tax issues, how can such issues be resolved or the state's demands met?” she asked.
